European Commission hopes to do away with roaming charges by 2016 in Europe

Published on : Wednesday, February 19, 2014

European-Commission-hopes-to-do-away-with-roaming-charges-by-2016-in-Europe-300x225European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes expressed his shock wtih the outcome of the survey that More than a quarter of European visitors turn their phones off to avoid the risk of roaming charges.
 
Also it was revealed that 47% which comprises of 28,000 people across the EU do not use mobile internet. This reflects the fear of high roaming charges within people.
 
The Vice-President expressed that it is imperative to eliminate roaming charges if this is the trend. Limiting the usage of mobile phones makes little sense for the consumers and the mobile companies.
 
Customers return with huge mobile bills and they are naturally tempted to keep their phones off while the app company makers lose revenue in the process. Roaming makes no sense in a single market, Ms Kroes added.
 
In UK alone 37% of British travellers turn off their phones when outside the country. 94% avoided using Facebook and Twitter when in an EU country other than their own, and 70% of people who call other EU countries limit the amount of time they spend doing so.
 
This trend is naturally affecting the creators of app makers with travel guides and the networks are losing on revenue by lowering prices to enable customer usage.

 
In the past there was an attempt to drop mobile charges for travelling customers around Europe, in September there were intentions of doing away with roaming charges entirely by 2016. By July this year there will be no charge on incoming calls.
 
It is quite painful for the networks that are making significant investments in 4G networks across Europe. The final proposals must be approved by the 28 EU members and European lawmakers before they can be put into effect.

 

 

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